Wiener barbecuing machine



1956 R. E. SCHOLL.

WIENER BARBECUING MACHINE 2 SheetsSheet 1 Filed March 27, 1953 lil ,. Ma a. )L .m W, H l 0 Y p M PB fl m I W wm E 2 .5 a A N a Q n HEATER .I -Jl II Wi l L Dec. 25, 1956 R. E. SCHOLL WIENER BARBECUING MACHINE FiledMarch 27, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. 9/lIfl/VD Jc/voLL wJ/ ymv IUnited States Patent WIENER BARBECUING MACHINE Raymond E. Scholl,Pittsburgh, Pa.

Application March 27, 1953, Serial No. 345,180

1 Claim. (Cl. 99-427) This invention relates to apparatus for barbecuingwieners, and more particularly to a barbecuing machine that is fullyautomatic.

Many different devices have been proposed for roast ing or barbecuingwieners in quantity for baseball and amusement parks, football stadiums,drive-in theaters, certain types of stores and the like. However, as faras I know, all of these devices require the more or less constantattention of an attendant in order to keep them filled with wieners orto remove the cooked wieners assoon as they are done. Such closeattention becomes diflicult and often is not provided when the attendantmust also perform other duties, such as selling soft drinks and otheritems. The result may be an under supply of cooked wieners or a numberthat are burned.

It is among the objects of this invention to provide a wiener barbecuingmachine which feeds wieners into the barbecuing zone at regularintervals, which cooks each wiener just the right length. of time, whichdischarges each wiener as soon as it is cooked, which has a minimum ofmoving parts, and which can be taken apart quickly and easily forcleaning.

The preferred embodiment of the invention is illus trated in theaccompanying drawings, in which Fig. l is a front end view of mymachine;

Fig. 2 is a view of the rotor driving side of the machine;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the machinewith the cover removed and part ofthe loading chute broken away; and

The cover may have openings in its top, and side and end walls coveredby glass 3 that is held in place in any suitable manner, whereby theinterior of the cabinet is clearly visible to the operator and customer.Mounted in the top of the cabinet base is a frame 4 that extends abovethree sides of the base so that the cover can fit around the frame andrest on top of those sides. On opposite sides of the frame are two partbearings 6 and 7, through which a tube 8 extends. The tube is clamped inbearing 6, but a sleeve 9 is journaled on the opposite end of the tubeand has a reduced portion also journaled in the surrounding bearing 7.

Rotatably mounted on the tube between the bearings is a rotor thatresembles a Ferris wheel. It is formed from two spaced metal rotormembers, preferably in the form of discs 11, that are rigidly connectednear their peripheries by parallel cross rods 12 located atcircumferentially spaced intervals. Each cross rod is provided with twolaterally spaced portions of reduced diameter, and hanging on each ofthese reduced portions is a hook 13. All hooks face in the samedirection, their lower tips being considered to be at the front of thehooks. The two hooks on each rod may be rigidly connected by a cross bar14 welded to the backs of them. The hooks and connecting bar form acarrier 2,775,189 Patented Dec. 25, 1956 that is shaped to receive andsupport a wiener at longitudinally spaced points as the rotor rotates.Since the upper ends of the hooks can rotate on the rods, the hooksalways hang down like a swing from the cross rods, regardless of theposition of the rods in the cabinet.

In order to drive the rotor, one of its discs 11 is secured to the innerend of sleeve 9, on the outer end of which there is a worm gear 16driven by a worm 17 on a horizontal shaft 18 below it. This shaft:projects from a gear reduction unit 19 which is driven by an electricmotor 21. The motorand reduction unit are mounted on a bracket 22fastened to the side of the cabinet base.

The rotor is driven at a slow speed; for example, one revolution in 3 or4 minutes. While it is rotating, the wieners carried by the carrierhooks and indicated in broken lines in Fig. 4, are roasted or barbecuedon all sides by an electric heating unit at the center of the rotorbetween discs 11. This unit may consist of an electrical resistance unit25 wrapped helically around tube 8, but supported on the tube by aninsulating block 26. This unit can be connected to a source ofelectricity by wires 27 extending radially into the tube and then out ofthe end of the tube opposite to gear 16. These wires are connected to aplug 28 inserted in an electric socket (not shown) mounted in the sideof the base. The socket is connected electrically to a thermostat 29mounted on the opposite side of the base. The thermostat has itsheatresponsive element 30 inside of the cabinet. The thermostat iselectrically connected to the same electric cord 32 (Fig. 3) that iselectrically connected to the motor 21. The heating element and themotor are independently controlled by two electric switches 33 and 34,respectively, mounted on one end of the cabinet base. For the sake ofclarity, the electric wiring inside the cabinet is not shown, but itsarrangement will be apparent to anyone skilled in the art. By adjustingthe thermostat, the desired degree of roasting of the wieners can beobtained during the period of time that the wheel carries a Wiener fromits loading point to its unloading point.

For automatically loading the rotor with wieners, the lower part of theend of the cabinet cover adjacent the up-going side of the rotor, whichis the side of the rotor where the front of the hooks face outward, isprovided with a doorway 36 (Fig. 4) slightly wider than the length of aWiener and normally closed by an inwardly swinging door 37 hanging froma hinge pin 38 extending across the top of the opening. Extendingthrough the bottom of this opening is an inclined loading chute 39, thelower end of which projects between the rotor discs and into the path ofmovement of the rising carriers. The chute is mounted on frame 4. Topermit the carrier hooks to pass the chute and receive wieners from it,its lower end is provided with slots 40 (Fig. 3) that the lower portionsof the hooks pass through. As fast as wieners are placed on the chuteoutside of the cabinet, they roll down the chute and through theswinging door until the entire chute is filled with them. The lower endof the chute is curved upward to form a stop that prevents them fromrolling off the chute. As each pair of carrier hooks moves up throughthe slots in the chute it lifts the lowermost Wiener from the chute andcarries it away while the wieners remaining in the chute roll down totake up the space formerly occupied by the removed Wiener. In Fig. 4 ahook is shown in broken lines as it first engages a Wiener at the lowerend of the chute. The chute can be made as long as desired in order tohold a large supply of wieners at one time.

Directly below the loading door the end wall of the cabinet base isprovided with a second doorway 42,

which also is closed by an outwardly swinging door 43 hanging from ahinge pin 44 inside the cabinet. Discharge ramps 45 extend from outsidethe cabinet upward through the lower part of doorway 42 to a pointbetween the rotor discs in the path of the carriers. The ramps can besupported by brackets 46 fastened to the bottom of their lower portionsand to the end wall of the cabinet base. The upper ends of the ramps arebent downward to provide vertically extending unloading members 47, asshown in Fig. 4, which are engaged by the front ends of the carrierhooks as they move upward. The hooks slide along the unloading members,by which the carriers are swung inward toward the heating element. Bythe time the tips of a pair of hooks reach the top of the ramps, thecarrier is tilted to such an extent that the barbecued wiener thereonrolls ofi the carrier and down the ramps. When the wiener strikes thedoor 43 it swings it open and rolls out of the cabinet and onto anysuitable receptacle, which may be a heated pan or plate that keeps thewieners warm until used. Consequently, it will be seen that after theloading chute has been filled with wieners no attention need be paid tothis machine for awhile, because all of the wieners will be perfectlybarbecued and then automatically discharged from the machine.

This machine can be cleaned easily, after the cabinet cover has beenlifted off, by removing the electric plug 28 from the side of thecabinet, and removing the tops of bearings 6 and 7 so that the entirerotor with the heating element and the supporting tube 8 and gear 16 canbe lifted off the base. To catch drippings from the wieners, a tray '0rests on the bottom of the cabinet and can be slid out through a slot inthe side wall of the base. When the tray is in place, the slot is closedby the overlapping outer end wall 51 of the tray.

In some cases it may be desirable to occasionally stop wieners fromfeeding into the carriers, such as when an adequate supply of wienershave been barbecued and are awaiting customers. To take care of such asituation a rod 55 can be rotatably mounted in one side of frame 4 andin a lug 56 on the bottom of the chute near its lower end. The outer endof the rod is bent at right angles and fitted with a heavy handle 57 forturning it. Projecting radially from the rod beneath the upper ends ofthe chute slots 40 are fingers 58 which, like the handle, normally hangdown. When it is desired to keep the A wieners from being picked up bythe carriers and yet permit the rotor to continue to rotate in order tocook the wieners already on the carriers, the handle 57 is turned toswing the fingers up through the chute slots and against their upperends. The fingers then hold the wieners in the chute away from its lowerend where the carrier hooks would lift them. By lowering the fingers thenecessary time, any desired number of wieners can be allowed to movedown to loading position.

According to the provisions of the patent statutes, I have explained theprinciple of my invention and have illustrated and described what I nowconsider to represent its best embodiment. However, I desire to have itunderstood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the inventionmay be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated anddescribed.

I claim:

A wiener barbecuing machine comprising a base, a pair of laterallyspaced vertical rotor members rotatably supported by said base on ahorizontal axis, a plurality of hook-like carriers supported by therotor members and swinging on parallel axes from their upper endsbetween said members at circumferentially spaced intervals, each carrierbeing formed from a plurality of laterally spaced hooks, the lower partof each carrier being formed to support a wiener, means for rotatingsaid rotor members continuously to move the carriers in a circular path,the side of the carriers facing the up-going side of the rotor membersbeing open for reception and discharge of wieners, an inclined chute atthe up-going side of said rotor members extending down toward the risingcarriers and having means at its lower end for keeping a row of wienersfrom rolling off the chute, the lower end of the chute being recessed topermit the lower part of each carrier to pass up through it and lift awiener from the chute, heating means adjacent said path for cookingwieners on the traveling carriers, vertically extending unloading meansbelow said chute projecting into said path and having an upwardlyextending surface positioned to have the lower ends of the risingcarrier hooks slide upward along it for swinging the lower part of eachsuccessive rising carrier inward to dump out the cooked wiener carriedby it, and a ramp inclined downward from the top of said unloading meansfor receiving cooked wieners from the carriers.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS975,181 Turnbull Nov. 8, 1910 1,634,142 Hammond June 28, 1927. 1,776,501Grady Sept. 23, 1930 2,602,392 Panken July 8, 1952

